Joy V. Sheridan writes

Charity Amour

CHAPTER TWENTY part 2
 

It was as hot as hellfire in the kitchen! Molly was dripping with perspiration. Whatever she was sent to do seemed to disagree with one or other of the chefs, so that after a time, she was directed - physically – to sit in a corner and do nothing!

It was just as well Madame kept her visits limited to the exterior perimeters of the vast space. It would not have pleased her to see Molly sitting idle. 

The enforced idleness soon began to chill Molly to the extent that she wondered if such conditions would bring on her death of cold. However, it gave her the chance to ruminate on what she had seen on her way down to the kitchens. She had been pushed, somewhat hurriedly, past the floor below which her room was located by the Amazonian guard-woman who had come to conduct her. Not fast enough for Molly! She had glimpsed the satiny sheen of Madame d’Esprit letting herself into a room at the end of the corridor. 

Molly had picked up her senses as she had noticed the ghostly form, for the very stance of her physical attitude bespoke the fact that she was up to no good. 

Down she had been propelled, past the second and first floors. Here she had seen the activities of the ladies of the house as they prepared themselves for the long night ahead. On the ground floor, a hive of buzzing bodies! Musicians setting up their instruments at the corner of a vast ballroom; a thousand candles flickering and shimmering about the luxuriant opulence of the place. This eyeful of glamourous pageantry wasn’t destined for Molly’s sight for long, however, and she found herself - all too soon - in the swarming kitchen. Her first task had been to clean and prepare salad foodstuffs. And at that time of the year, it did not seem plausible that such could be had. It only went to prove, that if one were rich or powerful enough, anything in the world might be obtained. In or out of season. 

As she sat musing thus, she felt stealthily for the duet of knives which she had gartered about her thighs. Good! They were in place and was ready and prepared to use them if need be. 

Bored beyond distraction eventually, by dint of having to sit idle, Molly indicated that she was desirous, and in want of, some fresh air. Only too glad to be rid of her stationary presence, the chefs were heartened that she wished to vacate their kitchens for a time. With an extolling - however - conveyed, not to be too long gone, she was given permission to vanish. 

With a relieved sigh, or the semblance of such, Molly slipped forth from the kitchens, went out by a side entrance and up the iron staircase, which she found led to the immediate exterior of the Château des Amourettes. She found herself to the left of the stables and eyed with frank astonishment the very great number of carriages and vehicles which had arrived for the jollifications. 

Trembling slightly, with cold and apprehension, she made her way alongside the house. Her fingers crossed that her brother and His Lordship, Lord Seyton Clover, would not be too long in putting in an appearance. 

She was suspicious of the house and its owner; did not care for those she had encountered living or visiting within its four walls. With a foreboding look she gazed questioningly about her. 

Despite the bright artificial aspects created by the lights, the lantern-lit illuminations; the high-lighted and cascading fountains, Molly Fibbins knew that the place was riddled with rank evil. The sooner their mission was completed and they could bid farewell to the house, the better she should like it. 

She went closer to an unshuttered window. What she saw all but made her eyes revolve in their sockets. She was observing, if not eavesdropping on, a scene of pure sensuality being played out on the other side of the window. What she saw made her blush crimson. 

The young woman, her petticoats lifted and laughing soundlessly with a wanton’s delight, was sitting atop a young buck whose member, even then, was glistening with dewy excitement as he lay recumbent upon the couch. Oblivious to all, she stood, mesmerised and engrossed.